So, made a few calls and found a place with what seems to be reasonable pricing. My local dealer is insanely high on their pricing I feel. Above the MSRP that MINI sets.

The dealer I found offered me:

- Extended Maintenance for $1595. This seems to be about the lowest around (most places are offering it at this price I found).

- MINI Extended Warranty for $2900 for 7 year / 100,000 mile. Seems reasonable considering my dealer wants $2,000 for the 5 year / 100k mile. Now, I do about 20k mile a year, so in 5 years I'll be hitting 100k probably, so if I went with this other dealer, they only want $2,000 for 5 year / 100k mile. Price list:

MINI Extended Motorer Protection:
5yr/100,000 miles - $2,580 retail - $2,080 sell price
6yr/100,000 miles - $3,040 retail - $2,540 sell price
7yr/100,000 miles - $3,490 retail - $2,990 sell price

- 3RD PARTY: The other dealer I contacted uses and sells a 3rd party extended warranty as well. They sell it all the time, and use it all the time. The guy said it is about 95% the same as the MINI warranty, the deductible is like $2 more. So like $53 or something instead of $50. They want:

5yr/100,000 miles - $2,495 retail - $1,995 sell price
6yr/100,000 miles - $2,695 retail - $2,195 sell price
7yr/100,000 miles - $2,895 retail - $2,395 sell price
Additional terms available include 6yr/124,000 miles for $2,495, 7yr/124,000 miles for $2,915


Now, all that being said, I do about 15k - 20k a year (a tad higher if I do any traveling) so as you can see, I'll hit the 100k mark before I will 6 or 7 years. So to me I have to now decide which extended warranty is worth it. Do I just get the maintenance extended (which covers the clutch as I have a manual) or do I get the actual warranty extended which covers engine and drivetrain stuff.

Of course, the 3rd option is to get nothing... stick away $2500+ into a savings account and sit on it in case I need repairs (at that point I'd be using an indie shop with much lower rates than MINI but still using OEM MINI parts)... so that's another option. Maybe just do maintenance plan for $1500 and sit on some cash for the actually warranty work past my 50,000 miles. Blah... hate these decisions.

Thoughts?

 

IMHO it makes sense to shop for ext.warranty when the original one is about to end. The prices will be the same or close.

 

Mine is very far from ending.... 300 miles on the car. I may use your advice though and wait a year or two and shop around again if I've been having issues with the car.

Seems to make sense... I'll stick a little into savings each month and hell, in 2 years time I may have a nice little nest egg saved up I'll just use in case of emergencies, and when I sell the car take a nice vacation if I didn't use it all up.

 

Are you able to gather verifiable examples of how "well" the 3RD PARTY warranty company handles claims (i.e. pulling teeth, fair/reasonable, etc.).

My 2 cents: I am willing to pay a premium if the company has a proven track record of "paying up" when a valid claim is submitted.
I bought one for a BMW 740iL (Mercury) and had no problems with them (e.g. window regulator, suspension work, gaskets, hoses, EP, WP, etc.)
I bought a Ford truck (with a transferrable warranty from EasyCare) and also had no problems with them when an alternator crapped out.

 

Thanks for researching the numbers. I'm also looking at the extended warranty. AAA has a $150 off sale this month on their extended warranties. I've got 8 months left on my 09 Clubman S warranty and have had 2 HPFP, 2 water pumps, turbo water pump recall and complete timing chain assembly done so far. The engines starting to sound like a diesel again and is going back for LOF on Friday. I change the oil every 5k miles. I only have 21k miles on the car and am worried that i'm looking at more engine problems after the warranty expires. Any suggestions?

 

I just recently purchase a 09 Mini Cooper s with 48000 miles. And I heard about issue with cooper so I bought third party warranty from aaa. I am sure I am paying high but I started to hear rattle from engine so I know it will be worth it in future plus resale is higher. But I am paying 100 k or 6 year with 100 ded for 2400. I am sure I could talk down to 2000 even but didn't try kind of rushed it. Hope that helps you out.

 

From my experience 3rd party warranties suck. Keep the $2700 for future repairs.

 

Are there 'tiers' in MINI Extended Motorer Protection (EMP), is it equivalent of MINI CPO? With BMW Powertrain/Gold/Platinum coverage, Gold is equivalent of BMW CPO. I'm quite happy with my MINI CPO coverage (6/100, $50 deductible), but no idea how it compares to EMP. If it's close/the same, I'd say $2.5K for 6/100k is a good deal if you're not a DIY'er.

 

There are 2 tiers. XL and XXL. The latter covers the navigation and radio. That's the only difference. Then it's just the mileage tiers.

It's close to the CPO, but I do believe does cover a few more things.

I may pick it up, just to cover my engine and BIG fixes. I do smaller stuff myself and all my maintenance myself. But I'm going to wait until next year to pick it up. I also may just stick money in my savings and hold on to it for engencies. Then if I don't need it Have a nice vacation. I'm deciplined enough to not spend the money. And with almost $3k I'm sure I can fix most things that go wrong with the car if that arises. Of course if I have a lot of warranty work within my 50k mile warranty, my tone may change.